The Best Musical Instruments for a Campfire Jam Session

Nothing caps off a great day in the outdoors like the sound of good friends singing around a campfire. There’s something about wood smoke and a starry night that brings out the best in experienced musicians and invites beginners to join in. We spent 40 hours on research and testing, including reading hundreds of reviews and interviewing nearly a dozen experts, to select the best instruments to bring along for camping or adventure travel.

Bringing expensive musical instruments—not to mention heavy, bulky ones—on a camping trip is a nonstarter. Hot cars, wet weather, jammed backpacks—none of these are friendly to musical equipment. So the first step to that perfect campfire jam is picking instruments that are both portable and tough enough for travel and outdoor life. The second is finding the right kind of music: tunes easy enough to share with players of all abilities and songs that inspire everyone to sing along. A great campfire song circle is not about technical expertise; it’s about sharing the love of familiar music in a setting where everyone feels included.

Table of contents

Why you should trust us

I’m a writer and professional musician who plays harmonica, concertina, and percussion in the roots/Americana band Spuyten Duyvil. I’ve played in hundreds of campfire jams, in places ranging from the Alaskan wilderness to folk festival campgrounds. I’ve also worked at Popular Mechanics and other magazines where I have been involved in product testing for nearly 30 years. For this guide I interviewed roughly a dozen professional and amateur musicians who are veterans at playing this kind of informal, communal music. Several of these also assisted in testing instruments. In addition, since campfire instruments are meant to be easy to learn, each instrument test was performed by both advanced and less experienced players. Our panel of experts included:

Rik Mercaldi, vintage instrument vendor, guitar teacher, and guitarist in the pop-rock band The Subterraneans and the classic rock combo Barleyville. He has recorded with Edie Brickell and other artists.

Matt Turk, singer-songwriter, guitarist and mandolin player who has performed with Pete Seeger, Blues Traveler, and other artists, and toured internationally.

Michael Cain, Irish-music multi-instrumentalist and teacher.

Jagoda, drummer, percussionist, and music producer who plays in the bands Spuyten Duyvil and Swamp Cabbage, and has worked with T. Bone Burnett, Jill Sobule, and other artists.

How we picked

You’re not looking for Carnegie Hall-level quality when you’re jamming around the campfire with friends. You want instruments that are easy to handle and that will help make memories.

We focused on models that are relatively low-priced, since nobody wants to run the risk of losing or damaging an expensive instrument. We emphasized durability and portability over top-of-the-line sound quality. And we limited our selection to a particular family of instruments—what we call “campfire instruments” are generally small, simple instruments that are relatively easy to play and to learn. Here’s why: A campfire jam is usually a friendly setting where beginning players should be able to contribute. So even people who’ve never played an instrument might feel moved to start learning, say, the harmonica or ukelele a few weeks in advance of a trip. Campfire instruments are also great for experienced players whose main instrument isn’t suitable for travel but who still want to make some music. Finally, we focused on the types of instruments that have traditionally been mainstays in the roots-oriented genres—like folk, country, blues, acoustic rock, and Irish music—typically heard around campfires.

Picking the right songs

The earliest music created by humans was probably played around campfires, voices blending in the smoke over the beat of primitive drums. In an age dominated by professional pop production—with its computerized beats, auto-tuned voices, and studio effects—an outdoor jam is a chance to return to music’s roots. And that means starting with songs that are familiar to most people, easy to play, and fun to sing along with. While there are countless songs in the world, there is a familiar group of well-loved tunes that get played again and again in this sort of setting. Just the way most experienced jazz musicians know standards like “Misty” or “Satin Doll,” a good campfire player quite likely knows “Friend of the Devil,” or “Heart of Gold.” (Look for an upcoming blog post identifying the best campfire tunes.) The best outdoor music sessions are often led by players who have a few dozen such tunes committed to memory. But, you don’t need to be a walking jukebox to take part in a casual music jam. There are several songbooks available that will help you learn the chords to songs you’ve never played before or remember the words to tunes you’ve half-forgotten.

We recommend Rise Up Singing, as the first songbook a campfire musician will want to buy. It is a quirky guide to 1,200 accessible tunes ranging from ancient English folk songs to commonly played numbers by Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Musicians often call books of this type “fake books,” because they don’t include full musical notation, only the lyrics and chords—in other words, just enough information to help competent players fake their way through familiar songs. So Rise Up and similar titles are only helpful if you already know the melody and rhythm of the tune you want to play. But, since the whole point of a campfire jam is to play fairly familiar songs, that’s not usually a problem. (And it makes these books perfect for people who don’t know how to read music, but do know a few chords on the guitar.)

Rise Up Singing grew out of an informal, summer-camp songbook from the 1970s, and is still strongly oriented toward inspirational folk songs of the “This Land Is Your Land” variety, but it includes a smattering of classic rock and R&B tunes as well. Players who want a broader mix of songs should consider the companion volume, Rise Again, which covers a deeper selection of rock, country, blues, and pop tunes, and includes more contemporary artists, such as Steve Earle and even Adele. Like the original book, Rise Again features nearly 1,200 songs, and none of the tunes in the two volumes overlap. The Coffeehouse Companion offers a somewhat more selective mix of rock and alt. country material, including artists like Nick Drake, Shawn Colvin, and Death Cab for Cutie. (It also includes musical notation for the 220 songs it covers.) For players who want to drill down in a particular genre, there are fake books devoted to iconic tunes in bluegrass, blues, country, modern rock, and others. Of course, the chords and lyrics of virtually every song you’d ever want to learn are just a Google search away, but nothing beats an actual printed book when you want to take your musical endeavors into the no–Wi-Fi wilds.

Travel guitars

A travel guitar involves compromises in sound quality, but convenience— especially if you’re just making beautiful noise with friends—trumps sound.

This tough little guitar is the best choice for campers and travelers. It’s easy to pack and carry and stands up to rough treatment. Yet it still sounds surprisingly good.

The guitar is the one virtually indispensable instrument for a campfire jam. Most campfire players simply choose to bring the same guitar they play at home, or, if their main instrument is too delicate for campground life, a less expensive backup guitar. Still, some musicians prefer a smaller guitar specifically for travel. For those people, our top recommendation is the Martin Backpacker. The Backpacker is made by the iconic Martin Guitar company specifically for rugged, outdoor use. There are a number of well-made ¾-size guitars available (see below). As the name suggests, these are downsized versions of conventional acoustic guitars, which makes them easier to pack or stow in an airplane overhead. But the Backpacker goes a step further by also aggressively shrinking the body of the guitar. So the guitar has a very slim profile and weighs just a tad over two pounds. Guitarist Rik Mercaldi, who has traveled extensively with the Backpacker, says that skinny shape gives it an edge over other travel guitars: “It’s so small, you can just throw it over your shoulder when you’re going on a hike. So you can play it on top of a mountain, at the beach, wherever.” That portability does involve a compromise of course: The smaller body means the Backpacker is noticeably quieter than a full-size guitar.

Martin’s Backpacker guitar is really easy to carry.

As the Guitar Adventures review site puts in, this guitar is the choice “if portability matters more to you than sound.” Still, singer-songwriter Matt Turk occasionally uses the Backpacker in performance when touring overseas. “Sure, the body is small, but the fretboard is fine and the sound is surprisingly good,” he said. So, for those who mostly plan to play for small groups, we think the Backpacker’s combination of packability, decent sound quality and low price (around $200) makes it the ideal pick for campfire playing. It is especially well-suited to the rigors of extended travel—like, say, an around-the-world trip—since its small size and toughness mean you can bring it places where other guitars might fear to tread. “Sometimes, the best guitar is the one you have with you,” Mercaldi said.

This is a great-sounding ¾-size guitar at an unbeatable price. It’s easy to play and fits comfortably in airplane overhead bins.

For players who want a travel-worthy guitar with a more traditional design (and slightly fuller sound) there are a number of good ¾-size guitars available. Our recommendation for the best combination of sound quality and price is the Yamaha JR1. The guitar review site GuitarFella calls it “an instrument with good craftsmanship that has insane value per dollar.” Like most ¾-size guitars, the Yamaha has a shorter neck and fewer frets than a full-size model, but this has little impact on its suitability for most types of playing. At 7 pounds and less than 36 inches long, it’s much easier to fit in an airplane overhead compartment than a conventional guitar, which is one reason that even vagabonders who stick to hotels often prefer to travel with ¾-size guitars. (Note: Most full-size guitars will usually fit in an airplane overhead, but it’s often touch-and-go finding space. And few people want to risk seeing their precious instrument consigned to the cargo hold at the last minute.) Those with bigger budgets and more demanding ears might want to consider the top-rated Taylor Baby guitar, which comes in several styles, starting at $300, or the Martin LXM, known as the “Little Martin,” also starting at about $300 and available in different wood types, including a very durable laminate. It’s also worth noting that many people buy ¾-size guitars as starter instruments for children, so it is not uncommon to find decent ones on the used instrument market.

Harmonicas

Hohner’s Special 20 is about as special as a basic harmonica can get, with a smooth and silky sound.

This great-sounding harmonica is perfect for beginners, but popular with pros as well. It is especially good for players learning to bend notes.

For about $35 you can buy an instrument that fits in your pocket, spans three octaves, plays chords like an organ and single notes like a clarinet—and is remarkably easy to learn. If that sounds like a great value, it is. Our top choice for a campfire harmonica is the Hohner Special 20. Harmonica guru JP Allen calls it “a fantastic choice for people who want to learn to bend notes,” a technique that is key to that lonesome, soulful sound we associate with blues and country harmonica. We confirmed that assessment in our comparison testing of the Special 20 against six other top-rated harmonicas. The Special 20 delivered a smooth, silky sound in the hands of both expert and advanced beginner players, and our less experienced players also found it particularly easy to start bending notes on this instrument. Since learning to bend notes is one of the main challenges facing beginners, that fact clinched this harmonica’s top spot. The Special 20 has a relatively slim profile (which minimizes those “or are you just happy to see me” jokes when it’s carried in a pants pocket) and a sturdy design that helps prevent the metal cover plates from deforming if you accidentally sit on it. The interior body, or “comb,” of the instrument is made of durable plastic, rather than wood. Like most other top-rated models, it comes with a rugged plastic case and can be easily disassembled for cleaning or repair.

A harmonica is the perfect instrument to carry on any adventure. It packs more musical capability into a smaller package than any other instrument, and it sounds great whether you’re jamming with friends in a campground or all by yourself on a mountaintop. Harmonicas have been heard at the North and South poles, and even in outer space. For experienced musicians who wish they had a more compact instrument for traveling, and for non-musicians who’ve always wanted to play something, the classic 10-hole harmonica is the world’s most practical, portable instrument. And the harmonica is one of the easiest instruments for beginners to get started on. Most people can begin making recognizable music within a few days or weeks of starting to play. Of course, master-level players can do extraordinary things with the instrument, but—unlike, say, the violin—the harmonica doesn’t need to be played at a particularly polished level to sound great.

Designed by a leading harmonica player, this harp is versatile and easy to repair. It comes with one of the best cases available.

Harmonicas come in a variety of styles, including sophisticated chromatic harmonicas that can play in any key. But the basic, 10-hole type is by far the most commonly used by folk, blues, rock and country artists and is our recommendation for beginning players. (We also advise beginners to stick with harmonicas in standard tuning. Lee Oskar and others make harps in minor keys and other alternative tunings; these are best left to more experienced players.) The 10-hole harmonica is a “diatonic” instrument, which means that, unlike a guitar or piano, it’s designed to play in a single major key. That means you don’t need to memorize scales or know much about music; every note is in tune, and it sounds “musical” even if you just blow through it. It also means that, once you start playing with other musicians, you’ll need to own multiple harps, one for each key your friends are likely to play in. (Though there are 12 major keys in all, six or seven harmonicas will be enough to cover the most frequently used keys in campfire-style music.) I recommend the key of C for anyone buying his or her first harmonica; C is the Goldilocks key—not too high, not too low—which makes it easy to play. It’s also a key that works with a wide range of popular campfire tunes.

We tested C harmonicas ranging from the very inexpensive Hohner Blues Band to the fairly pricey Seydel Blues Session Steel. We strongly recommend against taking a chance on any of the many very low-priced harps on the market. The Blues Band we tested was so poorly made that it was almost unplayable. By the same token, there is no need for a beginner or intermediate player to spend more than $50 on an instrument. While many professionals opt for expensive, specialized models (like the excellent Hohner Crossover), just as many play the same mid-priced models that a beginner might buy.

Our second pick for most players is the Lee Oskar Harmonica. Lee Oskar was the pioneering harp player in the band War, and then began designing his own line of harmonicas. The Lee Oskar is a very slim harmonica, similar to the Special 20 in size, and it delivers a pleasingly mellow and smoky tone. It also features a durable plastic comb, and a design that makes it easy to take apart for maintenance. One nice advantage of the Lee Oskar is its sturdy plastic case: This kind is designed to snap together in a row so that, as you buy more harmonicas, you build up a handy, unified packet of harps neatly organized by key.

Blowing on a harp may help you grow facial hair like this.

Aside from the bargain-bin Blues Band, all the harmonicas we tested delivered adequate or better performance. If you’re particularly concerned about price, the Hohner Big River Harmonica offers the best value, though it takes a bit more air to produce a good tone. Hohner has been making its classic Marine Band Harmonica for more than a century, and it’s still the go-to harp for many professionals. It produces a bright, reedy sound with plenty of volume, though our less experienced testers found it slightly “stiffer”—that is, the notes were harder to bend—than our two top picks. Functionally, Hohner’s Blues Harp is similar to the Marine Band, although with a slightly darker tone. The most expensive harmonica in our tests was the Seydel Blues Session Steel. Where most harmonicas use brass or phosphor bronze reeds to create the sound, Seydel uses stainless steel reeds. Seydel claims those reeds will last up to five times longer than standard reeds, though online reviews are mixed on that point. In our comparisons, the Seydel offered a bright, balanced sound, but took a moderate amount of effort to play.

Learning to play: Getting started on the harp is so easy, it is tempting to just begin picking out tunes on your own. But I advise spending a little time figuring out what type of music you want to play. There are two main styles of harmonica: melodic and bluesy. They require very different approaches (in fact, they involve playing the instrument in different keys). Once you get used to playing in one, it can be tricky to switch over to the other. The melodic style—which harp players call “straight harp”—is the one that comes most naturally to beginners: You simply play the instrument in the key it is built for, a C harmonica for a song in C. If you want to produce cheerful melodies or play the harmonica on a neck brace while strumming the guitar this is the way to go. Neil Young is an example of a fine straight-harmonica player. Learning to play in this style is more or less self-explanatory. But if you want to play blues, or you crave that lonesome train-whistle-in-the-night sound, you need to learn “cross-harp.” Here’s how: Say you have a harp in the key of C. Count up five notes to G; that’s the key you’ll play in. (It sounds complicated but it’s not; and you don’t need to know anything about music theory. Here’s a good explanation.) This one weird trick means that all the notes on your harmonica are now ideally positioned to produce that bluesy sound. We recommend Rock n’ Blues Harmonica if you’re looking for a book-length introduction to cross-harp playing. (It comes with a helpful CD.) Blues harp master Annie Raines offers a solid online course for those who want to get serious. And the web is full of free advice, including this great wordless tutorial on the basics of blues-style harp.

Concertina

A concertina is an essential for traditional music and easier to learn than you might think.

The Hohner is a good low-cost choice for beginners who want to try out the instrument. This old-fashioned “squeeze box” is highly portable and easy to play.

Another reed instrument with deep roots in traditional music is the concertina. These are played by squeezing the instrument in and out; different notes are sounded on the push and the pull. In some ways, this configuration makes this a more limited instrument than the standard accordion, but it’s well suited to Irish and other traditional genres. In older days, the concertina’s compact size made it popular with travelers and sailors and it remains a fun, easy instrument for outdoor play. Concertinas come in various styles, but the most popular for folk music is the Anglo concertina. This is primarily a diatonic instrument, which makes it an easy instrument to get started on. For beginners we recommend the Hohner 20 Key Concertina in C/G. Experienced players might regard this very inexpensive instrument as little more than a toy. The manufacturing quality isn’t great, and many players report that it starts to wear out after a year or two. But, since good quality concertinas can run well over $1,000, we think the Hohner is perfectly adequate for a beginning player who wants to try out the instrument. (I bought the Hohner as my first concertina, and even used it in the recording studio, before upgrading to a more expensive instrument.)

This traditional whistle is simple, inexpensive, and slightly easier to play than the others we tested. It produces a lovely, ethereal tone.

Many people first recognized the potential of the simple tin whistle, or pennywhistle, in the theme from Titanic, “My Heart Will Go On.” But the whistle’s roots go back thousands of years—early versions were carved from bone—and even today it is an instrument of primitive simplicity: a tube with six holes topped by a mouthpiece, known as a fipple, with a slot to blow through. The fingering is even simpler than that of the recorder so many of us learned in summer camp, which makes this an easy instrument to get started on. But making beautiful music with the whistle takes some work. In the hands of a master, the sound is open, sonorous, and haunting. Played poorly, the whistle can sound shrill and out of tune. “The secret is breath control,” said Irish music performer and teacher Michael Cain, who helped us test the whistles.

Though a tin whistle can cost as much as $400 for a beautiful, handcrafted instrument, a decent whistles—that even some pros swear by—can be had for less than $20. To identify tin whistles suitable for a campground session, we spent hours reading reviews, scouring Irish music message boards, and consulting musicians. For most players, we recommend the Generation Nickel Whistle from England. In our tests, the Generation was the easiest whistle to blow consistently, and it was less sensitive to variations in breathing pressure. Overall, it produced a pleasant, round tone that was well balanced across the (roughly) two octaves the instrument is able to produce.

Our second choice was the Clarke Sweetone (also British made), a whistle with a tapered tube (known as the “bore”) that some players feel produces a mellower sound. In our comparisons, the Sweetone did indeed produce a sweet tone, one that’s a bit quieter and gentler than that of the Generation. However, producing the proper notes required more delicate breath control, which makes this a somewhat more challenging instrument for beginners. The Sweetone was the only whistle that came with a nice fabric carrying bag. We also tested the well-regarded Feadog Nickel Whistle and Oak Classic Pennywhistle. (The Oak used to be one of the rare American-made whistles, but the company recently changed hands, and today the Oak appears to be identical to the Irish-made Feadog.) Both the Feadog and the Oak were perfectly serviceable instruments.

Like the harmonica, tin whistles are diatonic instruments, that is, made to play in a single key. Most tin whistle players will advise starting with a whistle in the key of D, since that is the key most commonly used in Irish music. But we recommend the key of C for beginning players planning to play outside. “When you don’t have walls around you to reinforce the sound, the slightly lower C whistle sounds a bit more resonant,” Cain said. Fortunately, tin whistles are so inexpensive that it’s not a big commitment to buy multiple keys, or even to try different brands to see which ones suit your style. (It’s also worth noting that whistles are not precision instruments: Sometimes two identical instruments from the same supplier will sound different due to tiny manufacturing variations. At this price, that’s something you just have to live with.)

Aspiring tin whistle players should note that the whistle is at its best in its natural habitat, that is, playing the traditional music of Ireland, Scotland, and England and similar genres. Whenever a group of Irish musicians sits down to gallop through a long list of fiddle tunes, the whistle will fit right in. It also sounds lovely playing those sorts of pieces solo. (“On one camping trip, I entertained everybody for hours playing jigs, reels, and airs,” Cain recalled.) But the whistle’s quirky nature makes it a trickier fit with more modern music. In the hands of a skilled player anything is possible, but beginners might want to practice a bit before attempting that penny whistle solo on “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” We recommend The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tutor for those seeking a comprehensive guide in print. (It also includes a CD.) The Online Academy of Irish Music offers a helpful series of video tutorials, and the website Chiff & Fipple provides colorful advice and commentary on all things whistle-ish.

Percussion

Use percussion wisely—a campfire jam is not a drum circle. Thankfully.

There’s little doubt percussion was part of mankind’s earliest campfire music sessions. Today, percussion remains a great way to embellish an outdoor singalong, and to bring more players into the mix. But a word of caution: Many percussion instruments are surprisingly loud—especially in inexpert hands—and can quickly drown out your beleaguered singers and instrumentalists. If you don’t want your campfire jam to devolve into a manic, Occupy Wall Street drum circle, you need to look for percussion instruments that add depth and texture to the musical mix, without overwhelming it.

A simple fiberglass djembe drum is the best choice for rugged outdoor conditions.

The most appropriate type of drum for a campfire jam session is the West African djembe. Taking its name from the Malian phrase for “everyone gather in peace,” the djembe should help keep your group together, if not spiritually, then at least rhythmically. Sweethome spent several hours reading articles and message boards on what to look for in a djembe. The traditional djembe is made of wood with a goatskin top and laced with rope used for tuning (here, “tuning” means not matching pitch with another instrument but rather optimizing the sound of the drum itself). But for beginners and outdoor players we recommend a fiberglass djembe, most of which use a simple metal key to adjust head tension. Purists may sniff, but fiberglass is a more practical choice for an instrument that needs to stand up to the rigors of travel. Fiberglass models are available from several sellers: Based on online reviews, we recommend the Key-Tuned Kente Cloth Royal Djembe from X8 and the Meinl Percussion FMDJ7-L-F Mechanical Tuned Fiberglass Djembe. Expect to pay between $100 and $200 for a basic model. It’s recommended that adults use a drum at least 22 inches in height, so that it can rest comfortably on the ground, with a drumming surface of at least 10 inches.

For those who do want to go the traditional wooden route, caveats abound. A Boston-based drumming blog maintains that “it is virtually impossible to buy a djembe online” because of issues with quality. If you do buy online, make sure that your seller accepts returns without question (and preferably with free shipping). Another concern is that many of the djembes for sale today, particularly less expensive models on eBay, are made from illegally harvested wood imported to the US in violation of the Lacey Act, a law intended to prevent trade in endangered species. Sellers with a presence on eBay but with little to no online presence of their own should be especially suspicious.

The Spanish cajon, or box, produces a wide range of sounds, and doesn’t overwhelm non-percussionists, as standard drums might.

The word cajon is Spanish for box, and the musical cajon is just that: a wooden box that produces warm, percussive tones when struck with the hands and fingers. Many cajons are large enough to sit on and can produce a range of sounds from thumping bass to a sibilant snare (due to a set of snare springs hidden inside the box). Cajons have become popular in acoustic music circles partly because they are so much simpler and less sonically overpowering than a full drum kit. But a full-size cajon is probably still too big to lug on a camping trip. For those interested in the cajon sound in a much smaller and less expensive package, we recommend the Meinl Mini Cajon. The online reviewer Reg Norman, aka the Cajon Dude, calls it “a must-have.” Obviously this smaller instrument won’t deliver the lower tones of a large cajon, but it does provide plenty of percussive punch in higher registers.

Egg shaker

One of the most portable, affordable, and pleasant-sounding percussion instruments is the egg shaker. These egg-shaped hollow bodies contain seeds or beads that are shaken to make a gentle maraca-like sound. Latin Percussion (LP) is a popular purveyor, and shakers are available in a variety of colors and combinations, from two kid-pleasing glow-in-the-dark shakers, for about $10, to an entire Easter basketful of 48 brightly colored eggs for about $100. If you have children in your group, the egg shaker is a great way to get them involved in music making without enabling complete cacophony.

Washboard

This is a real musical washboard: Use it to make pleasant sounds, not to scrub your dirty hiking socks.

Though there are more modern ways to both make sounds and clean clothes, for the latter, this instrument’s unique aural signature makes it a folk jam essential.

If your musical tastes run toward the jug-band sound, you can get your Appalachia on with washboard percussion. It’s not as easy as it looks to play well, but you can still have a lot of fun trying. At roughly $25, the musical washboard from First Note (with its slightly cheesy label proclaiming it an “Authentic Musical Washboard”) is a good bet and comes with three plastic thimbles needed for playing. Going full zydeco with the larger $150 and up chest-plate washboards that hook over the shoulders is overkill for a camping trip, but for about $20, the Metal Zydeco Tie might be a fun accessory to wear with your flannels. (It may look like a novelty gimmick, but I’ve seen quite a few performers use these washboard ties on stage.)

Tambourine

Give the tambourine to somebody who understands that to play softer is better (a little goes a long way).

Properly used, a tambourine is more than just what you give to the person who can’t play any other instrument.

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, keep it down! These handheld drums with tiny attached jingles—known as “zils”—can be notoriously loud. (Just be sure to invite the people from the next campsite over to your gathering.) Professional-grade tambourines can cost as much as $200, but the 8-inch Remo Economy Tambourine, with a single row of zils, runs about $20, which is an affordable way to shake your money maker. (Pro tip: Disabling some of the zils by wrapping them with electrical tape will reduce the instrument’s jingle-jangle to a more tolerable level.)

Found in many musical cultures, the tradition of clicking cutlery together actually originated as the clicking of animal bones. Seeking to provide a easier-to-play alternative to a couple of spoons out of the kitchen drawer—which require a grip that both permits the spoons to clack together yet still stay in hand—musical instrument makers provide a set of attached utensils. An inexpensive metal-and-plastic set is available from Grover/Trophy. Artisan-quality wooden attached sets in the French-Canadian folk tradition are available from Ethno.

Ukulele

The ukulele has become the go-to instrument for cool, fun outdoor jams.

This dirt-cheap plastic ukulele turns out to be the great choice for casual outdoor playing. It is tough, sounds lovely, and comes with good quality strings.

Long associated with Hawaii, this instrument evolved from one embraced by islanders when the first Portuguese immigrants came ashore in the 19th century. Pronounced OO-koo-lay-lay (but really only if you want to be pretentious), the ukulele, or uke, is a four-stringed hollow-body instrument that’s a lot easier than the guitar for beginners to pick up. It actually comes in four sizes, but the 20-inch soprano—more traditional, more affordable, more portable, and more uke-sounding—is by far the best bet for campers and a decent starter instrument that costs well under $100.

Practice, and you may one day be asked to join the Ukulele Orchestra of the Western Hemisphere.

Although debates abound among aficionados about types of wood and solid wood versus laminate, for the traveler, there is a surprisingly respected option: the polycarbonate (aka plastic) uke. Uke maker Kala has recently come out with a new polycarbonate ukulele as part of its low-budget Makala line. The Waterman comes in a variety of pastel colors, and the price includes a backpack-style bag. Though low-quality strings have long been a complaint about inexpensive ukuleles, these come shipped with higher-quality Aquila strings. It is considered an excellent beginner’s instrument and even a safe bet for an experienced player to take to a beach or lakefront bonfire.

What to look forward to

Guitar makers have been experimenting with carbon fiber for years. The properties that make the material good for race cars and bicycle frames can also produce a virtually bombproof guitar. But until recently a good carbon fiber travel guitar could set you back $2,000 or more. Now a Utah-based startup is promising a great-sounding carbon guitar for less than $600. Klōs (pronounced “close”) builds a 33-inch-long guitar with a carbon fiber body (with a black moiré look) and wooden (mahogany and rosewood) neck. The carbon fiber makes for an instrument that weighs less than 3 pounds; having a wooden neck helps keep the cost down compared with all-carbon guitars.

Carbon fiber is a promising material for travel guitars, since it is light, durable, and allows for more varied shapes.

The company, which launched via a Kickstarter campaign last year, is offering a limited number of guitars on pre-order (we generally don’t recommend pre-order items, so this isn’t an official endorsement—but we tried one, and liked it a lot). The firm’s CTO first learned how to build with carbon fiber while working as a bike mechanic. Our testers found that the steel-string Klōs produces a bright, lively sound, though, as with most travel guitars, it lacks the volume of a full-size instrument. The guitar comes with a leather strap and backpacker-style nylon gig bag, plus a protective cover for the neck and shower-cap–type rain bag. Videos on the Klōs website show the company founders playfully using the guitars as tennis rackets and canoe paddles. Our testers did not replicate those use cases, but we are convinced the Klōs is one of the toughest guitars available.

We love the things we recommend. We select each pick with the utmost care, relying on expert opinion, research, and testing.

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Your Guide

James Meigs is the former editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics and several
other magazines. He has covered outdoor sports for National Geographic
Adventure. He also plays in the Americana band Spuyten Duyvil and has written about musical instruments for The Wirecutter.

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